BFRO #26065: California BFRO researcher has sighting with a thermal imaging unit in Wenatchee National Forest

📍 Location

📝 Description

It happened close to midnight on August 18, 2007, on the last official night of a private expedition, east of Mt. Rainier in the Wenatchee National Forest, of Washington State. Out of respect for our WA-BFRO crew's primary Central Washington State research area, I've purposely withheld the exact location and am using "Chinook Pass," which covers a broad general area.The event was both a weekend social gathering as well as a field expedition with one main base camp and several satellite camps over a 10-mile area. The area (which I initially felt was very dry aside from several marshy areas nearby, contained a tremendous amount of elk sign) has been used for a previous BFRO expedition as well as other private outings. It's been a consistent �hot zone� for our WA crew, who, lacking sophisticated heat-sensing equipment, have experienced a lot of curious activity over the years including purported vocalizations, wood-knocking, powerful footfalls, branch breaking, persons being paralleled, etc. and several documented sightings nearby within the BFRO database. In attendance were various members of both WABFR (Washington Bigfoot Field Research Group) & a majority of WA-BFRO researchers. A few of us CA-BFRO members were invited and held the furthest base camp from the main camp & shared that particular site with various WA bigfooters. A matter of fact, on any given night our camp held about 14-15 people with many walking back and forth only on the primary dirt road to the closest adjacent camp about one mile away. During the first two nights, there was no activity to report from my perspective other then some of the best barred owl vocalizations I've ever heard in my years in the field. For most of that Saturday, August 18th, I spent the day in Seattle with my friend Jamie J, picking up his son and we returned to the camp location around 5:30 PM. At around 11:00 PM our site held about 13-14 people (most of them researchers) who were consolidated in one small area. Everyone was congregated into this section of the camp that was bordered by vegetation on the backside in which there was a berm and trail running parallel right behind that vegetative border. Being a little antsy and not much in a socializing mood, I took a walk down that back pathway about 100 yds, (which was pitch black on a dark night with plenty of tree cover) to relieve myself. 30-40 yards further down that pathway the trail led to a swampy marsh & was broken up by denser vegetation & ponderosa pine (see map picture for camp layout). In the middle of urinating I was facing towards camp and heard a very close step-branch break at my eight-a-clock, 6-7 yds from me that did not give me the immediate impression a large subject was responsible. Casually walking back to camp and not hearing anything further, I asked one of my best friends & research partner, former BFRO researcher Cliff B., if I could borrow his X200xp handheld thermal imaging unit to scout around camp & see if I could see the subject responsible for the branch break on the pathway I'd just returned from. He immediately obliged and we walked to his truck, which was located about 30 yds behind the current congregated area in the opposite direction of that same pathway. When I received it, I immediately walked to the front of that pathway near where our tent was placed perpendicular to the trail and my companions congregation area was to my left about 20 yds in front of me down a small berm. As I could hear Cliff reshuffling equipment around the back of his truck, I put the imager to my eye to tune it and while doing so caught a glimpse of a small wood rat running 10 yds in front of me to the right. Straight ahead, I caught the heat signature of what I initially thought was a person standing behind a tree, beyond my party where it was pitch black. My initial impression did not change for about 20 seconds with the combination of only seeing about 10-15% of the subject. (partial legs, arms, knee & head were contrasted behind that biggest tree in view: see re-creation pic # 2) The subject then began to move its head right to left behind the tree repeatedly as if to possibly discern me or my presence more clearly. It then stepped out in plain view and dropped to "all fours" positioning, (see re-creation pic #3) looking over its left shoulder rotating its head in my direction as if to "lock-in" with arms fully extended and knees down. The second when it stepped out before dropping, the realization of what the subject was hit me and my reaction was a "surreal" shock considering the unexpected circumstances. When on the ground, the subject transitioned very rapidly to where it appeared it was now full body down favoring its right shoulder, rapidly moving and appeared to actually be inching up away from the tree it was initially behind & into a bit of a clearing from my perspective view. Knowing that the thermal unit I had was not self-recordable like a camcorder (at that time, to record video, our

🔍 Circumstances

None to the encounter although 13-14 fellow researchers were nearby in the immediate party.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Partly cloudy sky under a quarter moon. Calm at the time even though it rained an hour later.

ℹ️ Additional Details

Partly cloudy sky under a quarter moon. Calm at the time even though it rained an hour later.

🔗 Sources (1)

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